1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing position information, and more particularly, to a system and method for providing position information wherein a mobile communication terminal can receive position information from a position information server using a data burst message without accessing the position information server over the wireless Internet, check the current position, and inform a user using another terminal of his/her own position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interest in a position information service for checking and informing a user of their position via a mobile communication terminal in real time has rapidly increased, among a variety of additional services provided to the user.
That is, a user of a mobile communication terminal can receive weather conditions in their current position and an emergency alarm signal through a predetermined application program installed in the terminal by using current position information provided from a position information service, and can also check a path from the user's current position to their destination.
A method for providing position information services to such a user of a mobile communication terminal is generally classified into a method of using a global positioning system (hereinafter, referred to as “GPS”) and a method of using a position information server located at a remote site.
Among them, the GPS method requires that a user should additionally prepare a terminal with a GPS receiver and is a satellite-based position tracking service. Thus, very high service charges are incurred.
Therefore, a method of receiving position information from a position information server has been widely used.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the configuration of a system for providing position information according to a prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1, the system for providing position information according to the prior art comprises a mobile communication terminal 10 capable of accessing a wireless Internet service, and a position information server 30 for collecting position information of terminals registered for the position information service through a home location register (hereinafter, referred to as “HLR”) (not shown) or a visited location register (hereinafter, referred to as “VLR”) (not shown) and providing the desired terminal with the collected position information.
To receive position information from such a system, a user who uses a mobile communication terminal 10 executes a predetermined application program, accesses the position information server 30 using an application program, and requests his/her own position information from the position information server 30.
The position information server 30 determines whether the mobile communication terminal 10 requesting the position information is a terminal registered for the position information service, and then searches the position information of the relevant terminal 10, and finally transmits the searched position information to the relevant terminal.
The application program installed in the mobile communication terminal 10 downloads position information from the position information server 30 and provides the user with current position information and additional information according to the functions thereof.
According to such a method for providing position information, a user who wishes to receive position information should execute a predetermined application program and access the position information server using the executed application program, if the user intends to obtain position information.
Further, since the application programs that use position information cannot share the position information provided from the position information server, a user should access the position information server through the relevant application program and receive the position information from the server whenever necessary. Further, since the user cannot transmit the received position information directly to another mobile communication terminal, there is inconvenience in that the user should access the position information server, input information on a receiving terminal into the server, and request the desired position information from the server.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of providing position information wherein position information can be conveniently received from the position information server without accessing the position information server every time over the wireless Internet and the previously received position information can be utilized in a more efficient manner.